


courage

by aqd



Series: tumblr prompts [3]
Category: D.Gray-man
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Ficlet, Nonbinary Alma Karma, Nonbinary Character, Other, Tumblr Prompt, Yulma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-18
Updated: 2017-08-18
Packaged: 2018-12-17 01:00:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11840691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aqd/pseuds/aqd
Summary: A little ficlet for the tumblr prompt: "Help!"





	courage

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to send me a prompt and a pairing on tumblr! a-q-d.tumblr.com/tagged/prompts
> 
> Trigger warnings: fire, hospitals.
> 
> Have a nice day!

The night is crisp and full of stars. Kanda inhales deeply and sighs softly. It has been a very long day at work, but the Milky Way looming palely over the dark blue sky compensates the hassle.  
  
The streets are deserted at this hour and so he walks home in peace, enjoying the silence. He shoves his hands into his pockets, slightly shivering. At home he’s going to take a nice and warm bath, eat some soba, read a few pages of the novel his roommate gifted him and then go to bed, hidden from the world under his comfy blanket. Kanda sighs once more and walks faster.  
  
Only to stop a minute later. He frowns and inhales deeply, before turning his head. Smoke, unmistakable. He pauses and contemplates for a moment, what he should do, but then he sees a soft glow behind one of the apartment buildings. Kanda starts to walk into the direction and fumbles for his phone in the pockets of his coat.  
  
The smell gets stronger and stronger and Kanda stops dead when he turns around a corner.   
  
Fire.  
  
“What the fuck?” he whispers and now searches with both hands for his phone. “Fuck.”  
  
A house, quite small, is burning. Kanda has never seen a fire in real life, only on video. The smell is unbearable and he doesn’t find his fucking phone. For a moment he thinks about running to one of the neighbour houses, but then he hears it, silent and faint.  
  
“Help!”  
  
Kanda’s heart nearly stops in his chest and now he sees them. A person, behind one of the windows. He stares at them and then at the neighbour house, breath going to quick. He should get help, immediately. And then… then what?  
  
Suddenly the door of the neighbour house flies open and a woman, old and only in a nightgown, stumbles out, her eyes wide. The person in the burning house starts to scream and the decision is made.  
  
“Call the fire service!” Kanda shouts and starts to run. “Now!”  
  
“Wait!” The old woman gesticulates. “Don’t!”  
  
“Call the fire service!” he repeats, voice loud and beyond a doubt, and tries to kick the door open. “For fuck’s sake!” He only needs two attempts and in his determination Kanda thinks that the one month of juvenile prison for burglary pays off. He chases through a short corridor and up the stairs, past photo frames on the wall. A wall of smoke hits him and he stops thinking altogether.  
  
“Help!” Mortal fear.  
  
Kanda drops to his knees in an attempt to evade as much smoke as possible. He doesn’t answer, because he has no breath left and so he keeps crawling, until he’s finally at the top of the stairs. He hears coughing and follows blindly, passing a room ablaze. Even in the corridor the heat is unbearable.  
  
The person doesn’t scream anymore, there’s just wheezing and coughing. Kanda hits his head hardly against a corner he can’t see in the thick smoke and stars erupt in front of his eyes and he lands flat on the floor, until he’s back on all fours, finding his way and following shallow breaths.  
  
His hand hits something, _somebody_. A hand, which now weakly grasps for him. Kanda grabs a pair of shoulders and starts to drag them the way he came. It’s so hot, he can’t see anything aside from cream-coloured carpet and a dark shock of hair, and he’s so dizzy. His breath is shallow and too rapid and white sparks dance in front of his eyes, fingers slowly feeling numb. For a terrible moment, he doesn’t find the way. There’s just walls and carpet and no stairs, no fucking stairs!  
  
But then his hand grasps at nothing and in the next moment they are falling. Kanda lands flat on his back on the stairs and hisses in pain, the person on top of him and barely moving. Together they tumble down and he hits his head, his elbow, his knee and then they are on the floor.  
  
And Kanda hears a crack and in his dizziness he thinks, _oh there’s my fucking phone_. He curls his fingers into the arm of the person, still unconscious, moves forwards, half dragging himself, half kicking the floor and finally, fucking finally, his fingers hit the door frame. He hears the old lady screaming and somebody grabs him and the person and then he lies on his back on the lawn and inhales greedily, world still spinning and his whole body aching. The stars are hidden behind thick smoke, but he still sees them, dancing wildly under his closed eyelids and finally he passes out.

 

In the end it’s a smoke poisoning, but fortunately not severe, and bruises, a lot of them. He stays for a while in the hospital, sleeps a lot and receives visitors. The old lady keeps patting his cheek and tries to feed him horrible tasting cookies, his father weeps silently and won’t fucking stop, and his roommate sits the whole time next to his bed, devours his pudding and keeps calling him a hero.  
  
Long story short: Kanda fucking hates it and when he hears that the person he got out of the house insists on thanking him, he’s more than pissed off. He wants to go home into his silent apartment, take a fucking bath and eat some soba.  
  
So he sits in the foyer of the hospital, fuming, and just wants to get over with it. He stares at his phone, screen cracked and hardly usable, and asks himself what he has done to deserve this, when somebody sits down next to him.  
  
“You’re Kanda, right?” the person asks and Kanda grits his teeth, only to falter when he looks up.  
  
A dark shock of hair, glinting eyes, a soft smile. Kanda stares at them and feels to his displeasure his face heating up. They’re cute. Really cute.  
  
“Yep,” is the only think he brings out and they start to laugh.  
  
“I’m Alma,” they say and suddenly there’s a hand on his forearm. “I… I don’t know what to say. Thank you so much.” They beam at him and Kanda stares at them, slowly blinking and just shrugs, because _he_ has no idea what to say. They raise their eyebrows, but the smile doesn’t cease.  
  
Kanda looks at them, before taking a very deep breath. “Tea?” he asks and points at the cafeteria, wincing at how awkward his voice sounds.  
  
They nod immediately, smiling shyly. Obviously he’s not the only one feeling awkward. Kanda wonders if it would be strange to ask for a date.  
  
After all he’s a hero.


End file.
